Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I wake up at about 8am and get dressed with Eugenia to see Tara off at 8.30. Everyone else is up from our group too and its nice to see this camaraderie. We're all totally spent but we still make the effort to say goodbye to each other. She goes off and I have made sure I've collected everyones email so we can all email each others photos out and keep in touch if we so wish. Then the rest of us have breakfast before Jack, Katheryn, Eugenia and Travis get loaded into a saloon car with all of their luggage. Its a puzzle watching all of it get squished in at the right angle so that it all fits for their 7 hour trip to Nairobi. I do not envy them as we wave them goodbye. The rest of us have to wait till 4 in the afternoon so I take a stroll through the gardens and see the porters and waiters and chef out back cleaning all the tents and equiptment in the hot sun ready for their next use. I go back to my room and sort through the mess and repack everything. I then go to the bar for a drink and to enjoy some of the hot sunshine and some lunch. Slowly the others start to arrive. Andy buys me a beer, I buy Ed some lunch to thank him for all the pills... And unfortunately they are all out of mars bars, so again I make do with a Kit Kat instead. Seamus comes and sits with us and he and Phil talk about their police work together Elias drops by to say goodbye again and after lunch we start to gather our stuff together for the taxi to Kilimanjaro airport. Its the same van that brought us so plenty of room for all our luggage but there is a no seatbelt seat. Andy sits in the front this time. Sophie joins us for this trip as she is being picked up from the Kilimanjaro airport to go to work in an orphanage near Arusha. The long 2hr journey gives us all another chance to nap if we can. I see some busses carrying way too many passengers. Some of then are sat on the window ledge of the bus as theres just not enough room inside. There is certainly an air of concern here for me at the white black divide. I'm so saddened at this but it also makes me a little afraid because if your white theres a much higher chance you'll be robbed. though having said that I have seen very little of Tanzania and wish I had time to see some more of it. The country is 365,000 miles and has lots of national parks where wild large African animals can be seen, though the life expectancy for humans there is under 60. The airport is the most civilised place I've seen since landing. It's a proper building and shops with cash registers. At the airport we say goodbye to Sophie and then we go to check in. Whilst we're waiting I have a look in the Tanzanite shop and buy myself a ring to commemorate my climb. Its a beautiful little purple stone only found here in the foothills of the Kilimanjaro Mountain. Very Apt. The airport lounge has no roof in the centre which makes us wonder what happens when it rains?! The small flight to Nairobi, Kenya is loud and dark. I am sat right next to the propeller blades and it makes my hearing a bit numb. But then my whole self feels a bit numb anyway! There is a delay in Narobi but there is the world cup football on the TV to keep us amused. I cant wait to get back home where there is a mars bar just a vending machine away, Kfcs in every town and Dominos pizza just a few clicks away. Finally we board Kenya airways overnight flight to London Heathrow. Mum and Nicky have come to meet me and I'm so grateful they're there. I don't have much energy to show them though. I'm usually a very much jump up and down at excitement kind of person but my body is not so willing right now. I hug the other guys goodbye and I'm just so happy to be home. We have so much here and its great to be back.
- comments